A NEW cross-Channel row has erupted after France sensationally accused Britain of disrespecting the entente cordiale by ignoring the migrant crisis blighting Calais.

The staggering accusation comes as thousands of refugees move from a disease-ridden squat to a new camp sanctioned by officials in the port town.

It has raised the prospect of a fresh wave of illegal immigration as they queue up to smuggle themselves into the UK.

The Daily Express was told no Home Office minister has visited Calais in five years - despite it being home to 3,000 refugees desperate to reach Britain.

Deputy mayor Philippe Mignonet said: "Calais has not been helped by England at all. It is useless to say England doesn’t want immigration because still they come.

“The relationship between the English and the French has always been love-hate. We receive criticism but nobody comes from England to see the situation.

"Why has David Cameron not visited Calais? Why has England not sent a Home Office minister?

Steve Reigate

A make-shift mosque in among the filth and squalor left behind in Calais

“In the name of the entente cordiale I urge them to come over and see how we manage."

Tonnes of fetid and stinking rubbish, sodden bedding and abandoned tents now litter the site of the notorious “Jungle" camp in the centre of Calais.

The four-acre site became a makeshift city to thousands of would-be asylum-seekers desperate to milk a litany of generous benefits and healthcare on offer in Britain.

But Anglo-French relations have plunged to a new low after Calais mayor Natacha Bouchart turned a former children’s holiday park into a comfortable new home for vagrants.

The sprawling Jules Ferry Centre, a short walk from the ferry terminal, is now the first official migrant camp since Sangatte closed in 2002.

Women and children have been provided with luxury accommodation, hot showers and are fed twice a day by a Michelin-star chef in a state-sponsored arrangement costing £6million a year. Half is funded by Europe, meaning UK taxpayers are contributing towards the extravagant operation.

Steve Reigate

Migrant camp in France shows terrible conditions and litter

GETTY

David Cameron has been called on to visit the migrant camp and see the situation in Calais

Experts have told this newspaper there could be as many as 5,000 refugees lingering on the French coast by summer, attracted by the five-star facilities now on offer.

Each night hundreds risk their lives to stow away on lorries bound for Dover with “many succeeding”, Mr Mignonet said.

He added: “England says ‘it’s not our problem - it’s on French territory’.

“Whatever is there they will come - camp or no camp. The magnet is not the camp it’s England."

Steve Reigate

Calais police arrest a migrant in their new makeshift camp

Ms Bouchart has angered Britain by saying she would do “everything in her power” to wriggle out of a historic arrangement that pushed the border across the Channel.

She has lobbied the French interior ministry who are now redoubling efforts to pull out of Le Touquet Treaty..

The deal, signed in 2003, allows British border security to be stationed at ferry terminals in France.

If the agreement is scrapped thousands of refugees would be free to cross the 21-mile stretch of water separating England and France, raising the spectre of squalid migrant camps dotted along on the Kent coast.

The Home Office said it had committed £15million to reinforce security and upgrade vehicle scanning equipment at the port.

A spokesman added: "We continue to strengthen the security of our borders to stop those who have no right to enter the UK and work closely with the French to tackle the pressures at the port of Calais."

Steve Reigate

Filth left behind at the camp in Calais

Ukip MEP Steven Woolfe said: “It is hardly surprising no government minister wants to show their face in Calais.

"Other than chucking millions of pounds at building up Calais’ infrastructure to resolve a problem caused by the France's inability to control its borders, the government leaves all the work and blame for stopping illegal immigrants to hard-pressed lorry drivers.

"At the very least the government needs to send a minister to Calais to fight the anti-British propaganda being put out by Europhiles and local money gabbing politicians in the port.”